FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez admitted he’d have been fired had his team failed to beat … [+]
FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez admitted he’d have been fired had his team failed to beat Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Catalans reached the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 2020 by seeing off the Italians 4-2 on aggregate through a 3-1 victory at the Montjuic Stadium.
Last week, El Espanol reported that Xavi, who has already announced he will step down on June 30, would have been shown the door early if the Blaugrana failed to advance.
Post-match, he confirmed as much when asked if it would have been “impossible to stay” in the hotseat with anything less than a victory.
“Today nothing changes, if I lost I would be on the street. It is one of the best moments as Barca coach, but today nothing changes. Calm down, it’s time to enjoy it,” he demanded.
“We’re very happy. We played a great game as a whole, [and] the team gave its all. We dominated a lot of moments, the team got into a good fit.
“I already said that my players would step up with my decision [to resign]. After four years, we’re in the top eight in Europe,” Xavi also remarked post-match.
“People didn’t believe me, they said I was going to lose the dressing room, that they wouldn’t take the step forward. We’ve received a lot of unfair criticism.”
Taking another swipe at the press, Xavi said that the entorno which covers the club of his life puts “too much pressure on the players”.
“Today it seemed like heads or tails, an ultimatum. I told them that no one was going to die. It was even said that we were the jester of the Champions League.”
“You said that if I lost today I would be on the street, that’s what you wrote. Will I continue? Don’t worry, today we’ve moved on to the quarter-finals. I’ve already said what I had to say,” Xavi then added, in a reiteration of his previous comments.
Barca and Xavi will now turn their attention to the Champions League draw on Friday, where they will learn who their opponents are in a maiden last eight appearance since Bayern Munich humiliated them 8-2 in Lisbon during the pandemic.
